Pathfinder in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos

Fight and Flight on the way to Hell

Pimkin to the rescue

The party finds itself surrounded by malnourished slaves of Skarda, stuck in the dungeon under Skarda's ziggurat. Taking stock of the situation and veritable armory of fallen sentries and jailors, items are distributed amongst the prisoners and heroes and a plan is hatched to escape the dungeon and find their way to the slums of the slave district affectionately referred to as "Hell". Eletha – a devote worshipper of Ilsundal – that has been a slave within the mirror realm for nearly 20 years does her best to answer the party's questions and tells them what she knows of the pocket dimension and of Skarda and his plans.

The brave adventurers begin to make their egress from the fetid dungeon and find that the corridor leading out lined with covered pits, mainly by Bob and Ahnold falling into the first one. The pit was 50 ft. deep, with the bottom filled with 10 ft. of cold water and the walls inclined to make climbing back up them nearly impossible. Rei was quick to act, casting levitate upon herself and descending into the depths to retrieve the two waterlogged compatriots. The inquisitive halfling decided that rope was needed to try and circumvent this new conundrum and spent a few minutes relieving the bell alarm of its trigger mechanism, collecting a good 70 ft. worth of rough thick rope in the process.

Returning with the rope, Pimkin figured the easiest way accross was to just lasso the sconce found halfway in the hallway and after several tries managed to hit his target. Quickly using the rope, the dexterous ninja made his way to the other side of the pit and began scouting out for other concealed hindrances to their escape. Unfortunately, the pits were very well concealed and the halfling almost fell for the second pit in the hall. However, his ninja training managed to save his fall into murky depths below. Taking stock of the situation, Pimkin determined that jumping the chasm was nothing for his intense physical skills and he easily jumped to the other side and made his way to the other concealed guard post.

Though our perceptive halfling did a visual inspection of the room he found nothing that seemed to indicate how the pits could be disarmed so went back to the last pit. Taking a closer look he noticed that slots on one side of the pit could be used to project a solid bar from keeping the pit from opening so he attempted to use the large sword he requisitioned from the pile of guard implements but it was just too big to be wedged into the slot. Not one to quickly give up, Pimkin returned to the guard post and broke off one of the legs of the chairs and tried that instead. This attempt was more successful and the halfling managed to reset the pit door and made it safe enough for travel. Soon after the rest of the retinue of prisoners all made their way to the second guard post in relative safety.

Much more cautious now, the party continue down the next hall only to find another pit before setting it off. Not wanting to spend too much time trying to crawl forward, the party of adventurers decided to search the guard room for any concealed doors or mechanisms to control the locking mechanisms of the pits. After a bit of time a small hidden panel was found in a while and behind that, two levers pulled forward. Surmising these were the controls, Pimkin pushed the levers back towards the wall and a great grinding noise was throughout the corridor. After testing the first pit that wasn't set off, they determined that it was safe to proceed.

Once they reached the door, final plans were made and several prisoners armed with shields volunteered to rush out and make a break for the gates of hell. Pimkin opened the door and the plan sprang into action. As the party made their way out, waiting guards were slow to act other than their keed eyed commanders, but soon crossbow bolts were flying towards the escapees. Rei used her sorcerous arts to engulf some of the soldiers in a ball of fire, even catching a mysterious figure that was soon revealed to have a dried desicated skull for a head with burning red eyes.

In the confusion that followed the party was somehow split up and Bob found himself facing a strange translucent wall of macabre images of figures with eyes sewed shut or ears torn off. Soldiers quickly moved in on the toughest member of the group and began beating at the rugged fighter with their swords. And then one of the guards got the idea of trying to push the grizzled warrior through the wall and with assistance from his associate, Bob found himself pushed through the wall of terror, and his vision failing him. And their new friend, Eletha was then beset by the guards and in no way capable of defending herself. She quickly ran the other way while being nearly ripped apart by the swords of Skarda's forces.

Meanwhile, Ahnold and Rei valiantly tried to distract the guards while others got away, not really understanding what happened to Bob. The revenant then unleashed a blast of miasmic cold wave of terror and both Ahnold and Rei immediately felt its effects and chose discretion over valor. Making their way around the ziggurat, it was obvious that Bob had went the other way and that his only hope was the speed of halfling ninja to try and retrieve him and return him to the others.

Pimkin ran the circumference of the strange black pyramid as quickly as he could, only to find Bob swinging wildly at a pack of soldiers that surrounded him. Quickly taking advantage of the situation, Pimpkin flanked the nearest soldier and used his skills of the assassin to take out the unlucky guard. While Bob managed to connect more than once even while blinded, Pimkin took out the commanding officer, leaving one soldier left who choose retreat over facing the strange small man before him wielding a longsword as a greatsword. Pimkin then led Bob back to the others once he was able to surmise Bob's vision impairment.

Once the party was reunited, they quickly made their way towards the slave quarter, with Eletha managing to convince the gate sentries they were just returning from service in Skarda's palace. Once within the relative safety of Hell, the party was given nourishment and allowed to recuperate from their harrowing escape from the dungeon and ponder on what their next move would be.